Forever this time
by Natchou
Summary: This is the story of how Shawn and Hunter got back together in 2002. Slash.


**Disclaimer**: The characters in this story do not belong to me. They belong to Vince McMahon and the good people over at WWE. I'm just borrowing them for a while and I hope they won't mind. :)

**AN**: Well, this the biggest fanfic I've ever written with almost 3000 words in it. I thought this was a timeline not a lot people wondered into when it came to the Shawn/Hunter pairing, the period in 2001-2002 when the two of them in real life weren't speaking to each other and eventually reunited. Well, I wondered into it and put a romantic twist into it. Also, the end happens in 2012, so not to confuse people. Hope you enjoy!

**ForeverthistimeForeverthistime**

It had been a tremendous night for him already, a tremendous month to say the least. He had finally made his return after an injury that had almost cost him his career, he was loved more than ever by the fans that had missed him and now he had just won the Royal Rumble, which gave him a one-way ticket to the main event at Wrestlemania X8. So, has he walked backstage to his dressing room, exhausted and sweaty, Hunter Hearst Helmsley couldn't be happier with the way things were going. And as he opened the door to his locker room, and saw them on the table, the tired grin that was adorning his face grew even wider.

There sat a vase filled with a dozen white roses that he knew weren't there before he left for his match. As he approched the table to take a closer look, the door suddenly opened and walked in Vince McMahon's daughter and his best friend, Stephanie McMahon.

"Great match tonight, Hunter! Ooh, who are these from?" Stephanie inquired as she too approached the table the flowers were on.

"I don't know, they weren't there before I left for the Rumble, somebody must have delivered them here while I was away." Hunter said with a smile sitting down to relax his weary bones.

"Well, there's a card, let's see: _May these flowers touch your heart, just like you have touched mine. Love, S._ S? Who the hell is S? Is there something you're not telling me Hunter?" Steph asked as she turned around and glared at him.

Hunter sat there with a sheepish look on his face. Yeah, there was something he had never really talked to her about in fear of her reaction to it. They had become the best of friends over the past year after his injury because she had taken the time to come and see him at his rehab center and he had been very grateful to not feel so lonely while he recuperated. They had talked for hours on end about everything and nothing and he was glad to having found a friend and a confidente in her. But there was a subject that was a bit touchy and that Hunter didn't really want to talk about, until recently.

The thing was, he already knew who had delivered the flowers the minute he saw them and it filled his heart with almost as much joy as winning the Rumble did, maybe even more. It touched him immensely that that person took the time to do it and was really proving the seriousness in its intentions.

It had been a long and hard road for both of them, him and Shawn Michaels. They had begun dating almost the minute Hunter walked into the WWF, the attraction between them was so strong. They did everything together: train, travel, even wrestling in a faction together after Shawn had insisted to Vince that they formed a team. So, they became Degeneration-X and took the wrestling world by storm. Hunter felt like he was in heaven during that time. But soon after, things started to crumble.

The problems actually began as small ones really. While Shawn was a heavy partier with always a drink in his hands whenever he could, Hunter was far more subdued. And while the drinking didn't really bother him at first, the addition of the drugs didn't really help matters. He had tried time and time again to talk to Shawn about it, but he was always answered with a _None of your business! _and a door slammed in his face. So Hunter would let it go and the both of them would go on their merry ways. But one day, enough had been enough.

Because of a back injury he had suffered during a match, Shawn had been forced to retire from wrestling at the young age of 33. Feeling like he had been cut short doing what he loved the most and feeling like he hadn't been rewarded by working so hard for so many years, Shawn became a very bitter person and became depressed. The amount of drinking and pill-taking that had started a couple of years earlier only increased. With all of that added together, he really wasn't the best person to be around with. So, his relationship with Hunter became a part of the sacrificial lamb given to the lord of his own self-destruction. In 2001, after coming to a show to visit his love but looking completely pilled out of his mind, Hunter finally had enough. After a huge fight that had started in the locker room in front of everybody and that had continued in their hotel room, Hunter broke things off with him, having endured enough of Shawn's bs. and telling him that if he didn't want to be helped, then he was on his own.

Shawn had tried to call a couple of times, but he was always met with an answering machine. At one point, he just stopped calling which in a way depressed Hunter even more than he already was because it meant that Shawn had stopped fighting for them and in a way it broke his heart even though he was the one to end things between them. He had boken up with him because he wanted Shawn to find a way to get better, not because he had stopped loving him. So, he tucked away his feelings of longing and sorrow somewhere deep inside his heart and concentrated on his rehabilitation from the torn quadricep muscle he had suffered only 2 months after his relationship with Shawn ended. So, he worked as hard as he could to get back in the ring as soon as he could. It had been a long 7 months and as he was getting ready to make his long-awaited return, this is when he started to hear things, great things along the grapevine.

Apparently, Shawn had broke down one day and had asked the Lord to save him. And he actually got the answer he was looking for. Gone were the drugs and gone was the drinking, Shawn was apparently a new man. With that bit of news, the feelings that Hunter had kept inside him for almost a year began to resurface. He would find himself thinking about Shawn and wondered if it would be okay to just call him. So one day, after a long training session, he did end up calling him and for the first time in his life, he heard Shawn actually sound sober and clear-minded. They had talked for hours catching up on what was happening in their lives and at the end, Shawn had dared to ask:

"So, do you think maybe, you and me, we could try again someday?"

Hunter had hesitated, because as bad as he wanted to get back together with Shawn, he also didn't want this newfound sobriety to just be a fluke and be burn again somewhere down the line. So, they agreed to take things very slowly and to try to get to know each other again. And this is where the courting began.

First there had been the belated Christmas present, a complete set of miniature cars that Shawn knew Hunter collected, then there was the huge teddy bear that Hunter thought was adorable even if he kept that to himself and that wasn't counting the hordes of flowers that were delivered in every hotel and every arena he visited. Hunter had gushed about it to Shawn over the phone, saying he was flattered and Shawn had laughed and replied that because they couldn't see each other because of Hunter's renewed busy schedule, this was his way of showing him how much Hunter meant to him and wanted to make him happy, just like Hunter had made him in the previous years even though he had never really shown it. And this all had lead to tonight, where Hunter had received his 23rd bouquet of flowers (not that he'd tell you he had counted them) that he'd later learn had been put there by Kurt Angle in his abscence.

"Hunter! I believe I asked you a question!" inquired Stephanie McMahon who was now tapping her foot impatiently. This broke Hunter out of his reverie and he looked up at her.

"Yeah, about that. I'm sort of seeing Shawn again." "What? After all the heartache he's given you? How could you even give him the time of day!" Steph exclaimed. "Look, he's changed now. He's not the same person that he was before and we're taking things slow. I know what I'm getting into and if things get screwed up again, there won't be a third chance, believe me. You just have to trust me on this one, okay?" Hunter asked as he got up to take a much-needed shower. Stephanie hesitated a bit and said: "Alright, but you better be sure in what you're doing, because I don't want to see you get all heartbroken again." "I am sure, don't worry." Hunter assured her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a match to get off of me." he said as he made his way to the shower room. "Okay, see you later Hunter." Stephanie said as she waved him goodbye and walked out the door, leaving him in peace.

After a long hot shower and hopping into his rental car, Hunter finally arrived at his hotel for a much deserved night of sleep. As he got to the front desk to check into his room, the hotel clerk looked at him and smiled. "Mr. Hemsley?" asked the clerk, "Somebody wanted me to give you this." she said as she handed him a keycard that wasn't to the room he had checked into earlier that night. "Room 3B, take the elevator to your left up to the 3rd floor, then the corridor to you right, you won't miss it." the clerk smiled as Hunter got on his way. _Wonder where this leads to_. Hunter enquired to himself as he followed the directions the clerk gave him. And sure enough, as he passed the key through the lock, he sure didn't miss it.

Before him had got to be one of the most luxurious hotel suite he had ever seen. It almost was big enough to be an apartment all by itself. There was a livingroom with a huge TV set, a bathroom with a huge bathtub in the middle of it, a small kitchen with everything he needed to cook something if he wanted to and a balcony with a fantastic view on the ocean just down below. But it wasn't just this that took his breath away. There were candles lit up on almost every surface and at the center of the livingroom he was standing in at the moment was a table set up for two with what looked like a gourmet dinner and a bottle of champagne on top of it all. As he stood there flabbergasted, he didn't hear the door of the bedroom open and didn't sense the presence coming behind him with a smile on its face.

"So, do you like it?"

Hunter almost jumped at the voice behind him and turned around, almost refusing to believe what his heart hoped was there. But there he was, a vision dressed in a black button-shirt and blue jeans, with a smile that could lit up the world and blue eyes that for the first time saw no signs of worry, or anger or to be in an altered state. It looked like the world wasn't weighing on his shoulders anymore. He looked like an angel, his angel, an angel named Shawn and he was _here_, with _him_. And if Hunter thought he was happy in his dressing room after receiving flowers, it couldn't compare to this moment right now, after all this time, seeing him again, and dare he say it, falling in love all over again. And as Shawn approached almost tentatively, as if he was afraid Hunter would run away if he made an abrupt move, he couldn't take it anymore and took two full steps before taking him into his arms and crushing their mouths together, putting all of his renewed love and passion into this one single kiss. He felt Shawn reciprocate just as much as he was and the minutes that followed felt like a blissful eternity to him, like all the months that they had been apart suddenly faded away and they had always been together. As they seperated at last because of the need for air, Hunter took a strand of Shawn's hair between his fingers and smiled.

"Your hair is shorter that I remembered it. Looks good on you." Shawn shot him a smile of his own."Thanks, got it done about a month ago. So, as I said before, do you like it?" he asked as he gestured around the room. "I don't like it, I love it! Nobody's ever done this for me before." Hunter said as he took Shawn's hand and followed him to sit down at the table to eat. "Well, nothing but the best for the best, I say." Shawn responded as he cocked up the cork of the champagne bottle and filled up their glasses. "To second chances, in every sense of the word" Shawn toasted as he clincked his glass with Hunter's but only took a tiny little sip of the drink, his newly found sobriety demanding it.

So they sat there and ate and talked, about everything and nothing. After they finished dinner, they drank some coffee on the couch in the livingroom while chitchatting. After a while, Hunter turned quiet, just content to hold Shawn in his arms again after all this time. As he ran a hand through Shawn's hair, he couldn't help himself and dropped a kiss on Shawn's neck, leaving goosebumps on his skin. And as Shawn turned around and looked at him with the most lustful look in his eyes that Hunter had ever seen, he knew that his night was just beginning.

They made love everywhere, in almost every position they could think of. He took Shawn as his, just like Shawn took him as his. All the yearning for each other and all the repressed love and lust that they had been missing from one another got their fill in that one night. In the end, the suite looked like it had survived a tornado and an elephant stampede all rolled up into one. Clothes were everywhere, the content of the dinner table had been pushed to the floor as Hunter laid Shawn there for their third time, even the frames on the walls were crooked the impact of the night was so great. And that was not including their last time on the balcony, where after they watched the sunrise together, Shawn went down on Hunter and made sure that everybody within at least a 5 miles radius heard exactly what was going on.

So, as they laid in their bathrobes on the lounge chair after this last time and feeling the happiest they had been in a long time, Shawn rose his voice:

"You and me, forever this time, right?"

"Right."

**ForeverthistimeForeverthistime**

"...and this is basically how we got back together." Shawn informed the brand new WWE Champion and former protege, Bryan Danielson, as he listened intently to the tale.

"Wow, you did all that stuff for him? You must have really loved him to go through all of that." Bryan pondered.

"Well, I did need to change to be a better person not just for myself, but also for him. And yeah, I did love him enough to do all of that. And I still do." Shawn reflected as he glanced at the golden band on his finger. "Can't believe it'll almost be 10 years since we got married."

"Lucky for you, that's almost double the time the relationships last in here and that includes the straight ones!" joked Bryan while laughing. Shawn chuckled as he heard footsteps and turned around, his smile never leaving his face as he saw his husband in his wrestling gear for what would probably be the last time. It was now Wrestlemania 28, in Chicago, Ill. and it was Hunter's retirement match. Shawn had retired 2 years before after coming back to wrestling sometimes after he and Hunter had gotten married and staying an additional 7 years. He had come to visit the guys from time to time but hadn't really missed the day-to-day wringer that was the wrestling life, even if Hunter sometimes told him he missed having him by his side on the road. Everytime he told him this, Shawn would smile and say _I'm okay here, I'm just waiting for you._ and Hunter would let it go. And so he waited and it all came down to tonight when he would finally be able to take his husband home for good.

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Hunter as he approached the pair and wrapped his arms around Shawn from behind. "Oh, you know, just reminiscing." said Shawn as he laid his head on Hunter's shoulder and intertwined their fingers together. "Well, looks like that's my cue to leave you guys alone." Bryan said as he stood up from his spot and walked to the door. "Kick ass tonight, Hunter, 'kay?" "I will kid, don't worry and go and celebrate now, you really deserve it." Hunter smiled as he patted him on the back on the way out. "I will, don't worry." Bryan answered back. "'Night Shawn." he smiled as he went through the door.

And so, with Shawn still in his arms and about to go out and perform for tens of thousands of screaming fans for the last time, Hunter rose his voice:

"You and me, forever, right?

"Right."

**ForeverthistimeForeverthistime**

Well, what did you guys think? Please leave a review, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks! :)


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